Plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition system and method

Abstract

A method for depositing a film on a substrate using a plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) process includes disposing the substrate in a process chamber configured to facilitate the PEALD process, introducing a first process material within the process chamber and introducing a second process material within the process chamber. Also included is coupling electromagnetic power to the process chamber during introduction of the second process material in order to generate a plasma that facilitates a reduction reaction between the first and second process materials at a surface of the substrate. A reactive gas is introduced within the process chamber, the reactive gas chemically reacting with contaminants in the process chamber to release the contaminants from at least one of a process chamber component or the substrate.

The invention claimed is: 
     
       1. A method for depositing a metallic film on a substrate using a plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) process, comprising:
 disposing said substrate in a process chamber configured to facilitate said PEALD process; 
 introducing a first process material within said process chamber; 
 introducing a second process material within said process chamber after the introduction of the first process material within said process chamber; 
 coupling electromagnetic power to said process chamber during introduction of the second process material in order to generate a plasma that facilitates a reduction reaction between the first and second process materials at a surface of said substrate, the reduction reaction depositing the metallic film on the substrate in a solid state; and 
 performing a cleaning step, after the completion of the reduction reaction between the first and second process materials which deposited the metallic film on the substrate in a solid state, by introducing within the process chamber a third material which is a reactive gas that chemically reacts with contaminants in said process chamber to release the contaminants from at least one of a process chamber component or said substrate, the cleaning step being performed between cycles of the PEALD process. 
 
     
     
       2. The method of  claim 1 , wherein said introducing a first process material comprises introducing a process material comprising at least one of TaF 5 , TaCl 5 , TaBr 5 , Tal 5 , Ta(CO) 5 , PEMAT, PDMAT, PDEAT, TBTDET, Ta(NC 2 H 5 )(N(C 2 H 5 ) 2 ) 3 , Ta(NC(CH 3 ) 2 C 2 H 5 )(N(CH 3 ) 2 ) 3 , Ta(NC(CH 3 ) 3 )(N(CH 3 ) 2 ) 3 , TiF 4 , TiCl 4 , TiBr 4 , Til 4 , TEMAT, TDMAT, TDEAT, Ti(NO 3 ), WF 6 , W(CO) 6 , MoF 6 , Cu(TMVS)(hfac), CuCl, Zr(NO 3 ) 4 , ZrCl 4 , Hf(OBu t ) 4 , Hf(NO 3 ) 4 , HfCl 4 , NbCl 5 , ZnCl 2 , Si(OC 2 H 5 ) 4 , Si(NO 3 ) 4 , SiCl 4 , SiH 2 Cl 2 , Al 2 Cl 6 , Al(CH 3 ) 3 , Ga(NO 3 ) 3 , and Ga(CH 3 ) 3 . 
     
     
       3. The method of  claim 1 , wherein said introducing a second process material comprises introducing a process material comprising at least one of H 2 , N 2 , O 2 , H 2 O, NH 3 , H 2 O 2 , SiH 4 , SiH 6 , N 2 H 4 , NH(CH 3 ) 2 , and N 2 H 3 CH 3 . 
     
     
       4. The method of  claim 1 , wherein said coupling electromagnetic power to the process chamber comprises coupling at least 600W of power to the process chamber. 
     
     
       5. The method of  claim 4 , wherein said coupling electromagnetic power to the process chamber comprises coupling at least 1000W of power to the process chamber. 
     
     
       6. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising heating the walls of said process chamber during said introduction of the chemically reactive gas. 
     
     
       7. The method of  claim 6 , wherein said heating comprises heating the walls of said process chamber to at least 80° C. 
     
     
       8. The method of  claim 1 , wherein said introducing a reactive gas comprises introducing the reactive purge gas to said process chamber after introducing said second process material. 
     
     
       9. The method of  claim 8  wherein said introducing a reactive purge gas further comprises introducing the reactive purge gas to said process chamber after introducing said first process material and before introducing said second process material. 
     
     
       10. The method of  claim 8 , further comprising introducing an inert purge gas to said process chamber between introducing said first process material and introducing said second process material. 
     
     
       11. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising coupling electromagnetic power to said process chamber to generate a plasma during at least one of said introducing a first process material or introducing a reactive purge gas. 
     
     
       12. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising forming at least one of a barrier layer, a seed layer, an adhesion layer, a gate layer, a metal layer, a metal oxide layer, a metal nitride layer, or a dielectric layer on said substrate. 
     
     
       13. The method of  claim 1 , wherein:
 said introducing a first process material comprises introducing TaCl 5  to said process chamber; 
 said introducing a second process material comprises introducing H 2  to said process chamber; and 
 said introducing a third material which is a reactive gas comprises introducing NH 3  to said process chamber to react with chlorine contaminants within the process chamber. 
 
     
     
       14. A non-transitory computer readable medium containing program instructions for execution on a substrate processing system processor, which when executed by the processor, cause the substrate processing system to perform the steps in the method recited in  claim 1 . 
     
     
       15. A non-transitory computer readable medium containing program instructions for execution on a substrate processing system processor, which when executed by the processor, cause the substrate processing system to perform the steps in the method recited in  claim 13 . 
     
     
       16. A semiconductor device comprising at least one of a barrier layer, a seed layer, an adhesion layer, a gate layer, a metal layer, a metal oxide layer, a metal nitride layer, and a dielectric layer formed by the method recited in  claim 1 . 
     
     
       17. A semiconductor device comprising a metal layer formed by the method recited in  claim 13 . 
     
     
       18. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the cleaning step is independent from the plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) process. 
     
     
       19. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) process is complete after the completion of the reduction reaction between the first and second process materials which deposited the metallic film on the substrate in a solid state.